Worried about sending too much email? Donât be, says the latest Email tracking report

Two weeks ago in this blog we revealed that email marketing volumes in the UK hit an all-time high in November 2012 (with the release of the National email benchmarking report).

This is good news for us marketers but what does the consumer think? Do they think we’re emailing them too much? Are we in danger of reaching saturation point? The newly-published DMA/fast.MAP Email tracking report 2013 suggests not.

Deliver content that’s relevant and interesting (entertaining even) and they will carry on subscribing to your emails. 90% of consumers subscribe to emails from brands they trust. The key is to be seen as one of these trusted brands rather than merely a marketing email.

As the big squeeze on household budgets continues, it’s no surprise that money-off offers are the most popular type of email for the third year running.

The big question – to design for mobile or not – has been doing the rounds in email marketing circles for a while as we all try to improve mobile users’ experience with mobile-responsive emails, bigger CTA buttons and so on. I’m not suggesting that we forget about mobile email but we shouldn’t overestimate its importance. Many of us might read our emails on smartphones (that’s where I read the bulk of mine) but 75% of consumers still prefer to read their emails on a desktop.

When it comes to making a purchase, 68% of mobile users would wait until they were on a laptop or desktop to buy a product they saw on their mobile.

As Dela Quist, CEO of Alchemy Worx, the report’s sponsor, said: “While marketers put a lot of effort into keeping up with advances in email technology – accessing email via mobile devices, changes to the inbox such as Gmail tabs and so on – email usage and purchasing habits are still broadly the same.

“What motivates people to interact with brands via email hasn’t changed. If they trust a brand and it consistently gives them value, they will find your content or make that purchase using the device that’s most convenient. That’s why, as the report confirms, email continues to be one of the most powerful levers driving online revenue.”

To get the full picture of what consumers say about email, have a look at our infographic or download the full DMA/fast.MAP Email tracking report.

By Smarayda Christoforou, Copywriter, DMA